Tampa, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that Monica Clyburn has pleaded guilty to three counts of aiding in the filing of false tax returns. Clyburn faces a maximum penalty of three years in federal prison as to each count.
According to the plea agreement, Cyburn was a tax preparer working for a tax preparation business at its office location in Sarasota, Florida for tax years 2014, 2015, and 2016. In order to maximize the refunds that the IRS would have to pay her clients, Clyburn prepared Forms 1040 that falsely reported fictitious amounts in the Schedule A (Itemized Deduction) portion of those returns. Many of the tax returns she prepared for clients also contained false information as to dependents, and some contained fictitious information as to the Schedule C portion of the returns reflecting profit/loss from the operation of businesses. The inclusion of those false items helped to inflate fraudulently the refunds that the taxpayers would receive.
The information charged her with aiding in the filing of three such false tax returns. The tax loss for those three tax returns is approximately $11,921. The tax loss for other tax returns that the defendant had a role in preparing and which contained similar false statements was approximately $186,834.
This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jay L. Hoffer.